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Since beginning to acquaint myself with the tree of life and its correspondences, I have been enjoying feeling around for the musical dimensions of its aspects, and thinking about how to add musical layers to ritual and ceremonial work. With this in mind, a quintet of us gathered at my place for some sound exploration.

As part of a recent lecture on “The Direction of O.T.O. in New Zealand”, I explained how promulgation and initiation are key elements in the work of O.T.O. The following is adapted from that part of the talk.

Vibration is the procedure, during the performance of ceremonial magick, of visualising and calling key phrases or god names with the whole body. There is a degree of confusion over the technique, as the writings of Regardie and Crowley on the subject have been rather vague, however they can help us piece together an idea of how to go about it, and also some later commentators give more practical advice.

I was reading a beautifully written wee book recently, published in 1944, “Here’s to Life: The Impressions, Confessions and Garnered Thoughts of a Free-Minded Showman,” by Henry Hayward. Hayward was the leader of the musical troupe, The Brescians. The Brescians were in high demand in Britain for many years before deeming to head south around 1906 as Hayward’s sister Rose had moved to New Zealand with her husband.

Isopsephy is the Greek equivalent of gematria. It is the numerating of words so they can be grouped by value; words that have the same number are then contemplated mystically, the aim being to intuit the supra-rational truth common to all of them, the truth that is symbolised by the number itself. (The idea being, so to speak, that every number represents a phase of the divine unity, which is itself an emanation of the supreme zero, which is Nuit. “Every number is infinite; there is no difference.” AL I:4.)

"The Book of the Law, or Liber AL vel Legis as it is also called, is the primary text of the Ordo Templi Orientis, which was dictated to Aleister Crowley by his Holy Guardian Angel, Aiwass in 1904 while he was travelling in Egypt.

The central aim of the OTO is to promote the philosophies inherent in the “Holy Books of Thelema,” delivered to mystic and master magician, Aleister Crowley.

Thelema is a Greek word meaning, “Will,” and it refers to the importance of discovering one’s own unique path in life, with the possibility of conquering the ego, and finding true happiness, if one is able to do so.